Join Bollywood Mantra

Dinesh Thakur passes away due to kidney failure

Dinesh Thakur
passed away today. The veteran actor and director was fighting with kidney
problems for quite some time. He was admitted to a suburban Andheri hospital
for treatment, where he succumbed to his illness. The 65 year old Thakur is
survived by his wife Prita Mathur. She is an actress.

Dinesh Thakur
was a popular face of the Bollywood silver screen in the 1970s. His memorable
movies were Rajanigandha, Mere ApneandGhar. He wrote the story as
well as screenplay for the movie Ghar and won the Filmfare Best Story award in
the year 1978. Rajnigandha (1974) was a film directed by Basu Chatterji and Thakur
played the memorable role of being the ex love of heroine Vidya Sinha. His
acting in the movie won critical acclaim as well as popular support.

Thakur
was always a serious actor and acting was his passion. He didn’t make much of
his mark in the contemporary Hindi commercial movies. He also didn’t believe in
moving to parallel Hindi films that relied more on substance than popular
spices. Instead, Dinesh Thakur appeared in main stream Hindi movies that were
forgettable. Such as Karm, Jalte Badan, The Burning Train and Baghawat etc.

However,
he was always more inclined to theatres than the movies. He studied in Kirori Mal College and was an
active participant in the drama group of his college. Thakur hailed from Jaipur
and it was he who struggled to make Hindi theatres get established in Mumbai.
Speaking about Dinesh Thakur, the eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur fondly
recalled, “At a time when commercial Marathi and Gujarati plays ruled the
roost, Thakur created an audience for good Hindi theatre in Mumbai. He trained
and promoted new actors. And unlike many others, he gave priority to theatre
over cinema.”

Director
Basu Chatterji recognized and trusted his talents. Thakur’s ex wife Rinki
Roy-Bhattacharya recalls, “Director Basu Bhattacharya noticed him acting for Om
Shivpuri's group Dishantar in Mohan Rakesh's play, Aadhe Adhure. That's how he
got the part in Anubhav (1971) where he played the third angle in a marital
triangle. He also used to help Basu with the dialogues and shared a close
association with him.”

Actress
Vidya Sinha recalling her shooting days during Rajnigandha said “Before the
shooting started, Basuda asked him to help me with the dialogues. Since he came
from theatre, his voice control and dialogue delivery was impeccable."
recalls Vidya Sinha.